4.5 Years! Really?

Josiah hit the 4.5 year mark earlier this month and that means that the big 5 is just around the corner!  I can’t believe it.  A little girl in his VPK class turned 5 this week and it made me glad I can still say I have a 4 year old a little longer.  He’s such a big boy who is going through yet another phase of big changes and he amazes me daily.

Look how big he is!  And handsome, too!

As I’ve mentioned before, Josiah had been refusing to go to VPK but in the weeks prior, he started to get excited about it.  Well, a month into school, he LOVES it!  We are so happy for him and so relieved for us.  He loves the activities there, is making friends (one is named Broden), enjoys homework, and responsibly goes through the motions of his daily duties there.  He has taken a liking to writing letters constantly.  He’s always asking for paper and a pen to write.  We now collect scrap paper since he goes through so much.

  Jacob takes Josiah to school most mornings.  I think Josiah really loves leaving home with Daddy in his truck and I appreciate not having to drive to town twice a morning, though part of me misses this part of my baby’s life.

This is Josiah’s first homework from week 2 of school.

The only part about school that hasn’t gone well are “Cindy days”.  Cindy is the babysitter that used to watch him and still watches Elijah on the days I work.  Josiah doesn’t like the days that Elijah has to go there because it means he has to stay at school.  He loves eating lunch there, but napping there stresses him out.  He tells me the kids (one in particular) are too noisy and that he covers his head with his blanket and sometimes cries a little.  Break my heart!  Luckily at this point I only work one day a week.  We’ll keep working on this.  Sleep and food have always been close to his heart.

Going along with his newfound creativity and trying new things is the fact that he’s started making up songs, usually using tunes to songs he knows and just putting new words or sounds to it.  He definitely gets this from me, a fact Jacob makes fun of me for since I blurt out songs or rhymes for everything.  Josiah is getting to explore this side of his creativity at Imagine, a program he participates in at church, where they are learning to dance, do sign language, and other creative things.  He is really enjoying that experience, too.

Here’s his creative side posing for me:Muscles!

Josiah has one habit that drives me a bit nuts, and that is that he is a collector.  I suppose this, also, is a demonstration of creativity and imagination in that he has a million little things that represent something of significance to him, be it a rock, leaf, piece of trash, unique paper, etc.  A lot of it ends up on my dresser as a gift.  I’m glad he thinks I’m a worthy recipient, but the junk on my dresser that I can’t get rid of is a bit irritating.  One thing he specifically collects for me is heart shaped leaves.  Elijah has caught onto this, but he doesn’t discern heart shaped from anything else and just brings me random leaves.  Can you imagine what my dresser looks like?

The dump truck is also a container for collected things.

While Josiah has his moments of jealousy and rivalry with Elijah, he really does love him.  He loves to play with him, specifically “construction site”, tries to hug him, and get tickle games going.  They’ve started sharing their room in the past month or so.  Josiah has done a great job of sharing the space, but he misses his toddler bed.  He’s also going to be a great brother to Joshua.  He likes to hug, kiss, and talk to my belly and he’s really excited about his arrival.

When Colton was visiting, Josiah took great care of him.  He made sure to surround him will pillows so that when he fell over he wouldn’t get hurt.  He also made sure he had endless baby toys, entertainment, and constant access to his paci.  Josiah loved it!

Josiah sharing his bed with the redheads, Elijah and Lilah.  They love to collect every loose soft thing (pillows, blankets, stuffed animals) in the house and play on them.

Josiah can talk up a storm.  In fact, we recently got his evaluation from VPK telling us his strengths and weaknesses.  He scored extremely high in the verbal section.  This doesn’t surprise me based on what I know he is capable of, but I was a bit surprised he’d let it show so quickly in a completely foreign environment.  The following conversation isn’t one that shows off his intelligence, but it did make me laugh.  The other night after bathtime I noticed a booger in his nose and commented to the fact.  (Josiah has never been a snotty, boogery kid.  He always has a clean nose and I have never seen him pick it.)  He said, “just leave it, I’ll get it while I sleep.”  What?  He proceeded to tell me how he picks his boogers while in bed.  I asked what he does with them, assuming he’d say he eats them because I’ve never noticed any anywhere.  He pointed between the mattress and wall and said “I put them there.”  I questioned further because I’ve never seen them on the sheets and he said, “oh, they are dry, I drop them down there.”  I couldn’t help but burst out laughing.  Guess I’ll have some vacuuming to do when we move the bed!  Gross!

Puddle Play:Josiah loves to get stuck in a puddle with his bike, then he pedals with all his might to fling the mud and water up onto his back.

The cleanup!

After asking Jacob what he thought of Josiah’s growth in the past 6 months that I could add to this post, he said that he thinks he is really grasping God, Jesus, and love.  This is evident in little remarks he makes randomly.  He was sent home from Imagine with a Bible verse that I thought was pretty complicated for his age, but he mastered it quickly, loves saying it, and has impressed us with his understanding of it.  All of this is so encouraging to us because we often struggle with wondering if we are doing a good enough job demonstrating Christ to him, never knowing which thing we do is most beneficial, but hoping that each little factor has a cumulative impact.  Of course, we prayerfully hope that over time the desire to seek Christ will be a burden he takes on himself and that God reveals himself impressively to him.

One more thing that I can’t help but mention again.  GI-wise, Josiah has never been better.  Because of that, he is fully potty trained and we are loving it!  He has actually been fully trained from a mental perspective for a very long time, but physical flare ups seemed to constantly pose a challenge.  Hopefully we won’t have any further set backs.

Josiah makes us so proud.  All the little fears I had about him when he was younger, such as his extreme shyness holding him back, have proved to be a non issue.  I should have known better.  He is is developing into an awesome little kid!  Josiah is funny, talented, caring, tender, and healthy.  What more could we ask for?  We are blessed.

Reach for the sky, little man!